The Washington Post Company reported the following accreditation matters in the 2011 annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

1) On January 26, 2012, Kaplan University received a notice from the Florida Board of Nursing regarding the Associate's degree in nursing program at the Pembroke Pines facility. The letter required Kaplan University to appear at a hearing on February 1, 2012, to discuss the performance of program graduates on the national nursing certifying exam (NCLEX), which has fallen below the required standard. As a result of the hearing, the program was placed on probationary status until the exam pass-rate improves. Under the Florida Board of Nursing Rules, a failure to achieve the required NCLEX passage standard in either of the next two calendar years could result in the program losing its license to operate in Florida.

2) On December 21, 2011, Kaplan College's North Hollywood, CA campus received notification that the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT) withdrew the college's accreditation for its radiologic technologist program. This program had 163 students on December 31, 2011. Kaplan College has appealed this decision and accreditation for the school will be maintained during the pendency of the appeal. Loss of JRCERT accreditation for this program may have a material impact on Kaplan College's North Hollywood campus and would certainly affect Kaplan's bottom line.

Kaplan was only one of five radiology programs nationwide to ever have their certification involuntarily withdrawn in 2011. Yet despite being unable to meet basic accreditation standards, Kaplan has been charging $42,000 for their two-year radiology certificate, while nearby Los Angeles City College charges $2,000 for a two-year radiology associate's degree.

3) In November 2011, an internal investigation determined that certain students in the Dental Assistant program at Kaplan College's Charlotte, NC, campus had not received clear guidance regarding the program's accreditation and the employment prospects for graduates of the program. Because the Dental Assistant program is not programmatically accredited, students graduating from the program are considered by the regulatory agency in North Carolina to have "Dental Assistant I" status instead of a more advanced "Dental Assistant II" status. All students in the Charlotte Dental Assistant program were given full tuition refunds, and current students and graduates were offered stipends in exchange for signing settlement agreements. As of December 31, 2011, the vast majority of the affected students have signed settlement agreements. [These Kaplan-generated agreements have nondisclosure clauses that prevent the public from seeing the violations by Kaplan and the terms of the settlement agreement. We do know that the cost of settlement was $5 million.] The school ceased enrollment in the program and withdrew its license to operate the program in North Carolina. No other programs at this campus were affected .

4) In August 2011, Kaplan College's Modesto, CA, campus was ordered by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) to 'show cause' why continued accreditation of its Medical Assisting program should not be denied due to low placement rates. Kaplan College Modesto responded, and ABHES agreed to continue the current grant of accreditation through December 31, 2012, to allow the campus additional time to continue to show compliance with ABHES standards. Loss of ABHES accreditation for this program would have a material impact on the Modesto campus and Kaplan's bottom line.

Medical assisting program problems are not limited to Kaplan's Modesto campus. On December 18, 2011, Kaplan student Michelle Flanagan, from Chicago, posted the following message on Kaplan University's Facebook page:

5) On or about January 17, 2008, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania contacted KHE's CHI-Broomall campus and made inquiries about the Surgical Technology program, including the program's eligibility for Title IV U.S. Federal financial aid, the program's student loan defaults, licensing and accreditation. Kaplan responded to the information requests and fully cooperated with the inquiry. The DOE also conducted a Program Review at the CHI-Broomall campus, and Kaplan likewise cooperated with the Program Review. On July 22, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced that it had entered into a comprehensive settlement agreement with Kaplan that resolved the U.S. Attorney's inquiry, provided for the conclusion of the DoJ's program review and also settled a previously sealed U.S. Federal False Claims Act (False Claims Act) complaint (31 U.S.C. § 3729, et seq.) that had been filed by a former employee of the CHI-Broomall campus. [Once again, it must be noted that the terms of the settlement did not disclose Kaplan's abuses or the agreement's terms.]

In the CHI matter, Kaplan had been enrolling students in the surgical technology program knowing that there were not enough clinical externships available for students to complete the program and graduate. It took the Washington Post Company four years to agree to a $1.6 million settlement to pay back the affected students' loans, and the money the company paid back was money it received from the federal government to provide students with college educations. In essence, Kaplan pays the cost of settlement out of Title IV funds and student loans. In 2011, Kaplan renamed the CHI school in an attempt to erase the stain from this case.

Legal Proceedings

In addition to the aforementioned accreditation problems, the 2011 annual report disclosed that Kaplan has been subject to the following legal proceedings: two class-action lawsuits, five false-claims whistleblower lawsuits, an employment discrimination lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a Senate inquiry, and subpoenas and investigative demands from the attorneys general of Illinois, Massachusetts, Delaware and Florida.

None of the accreditation problems or legal proceedings facing Kaplan has been reported in The Washington Post. Apparently, The Washington Post Company has been too busy engaging in misconduct to report on it. This seems to be further evidence of how The Washington Post has sold its integrity in exchange for quarterly profits which have now evaporated, leaving the Post left with little more than a soiled reputation and shuttered news rooms.

Conclusion

The Washington Post Company's diversified portfolio of legal problems detailed in their 2011 annual report is astonishing, and should force the public to sit up and take notice. Furthermore, by failing to report on the extensive legal troubles at Kaplan, The Washington Post has also ceased being a real newspaper, preferring to conceal more than it reveals.

In 2010, Washington Post Company Chairman Donald Graham told The Wall Street Journal, which was reporting on proposed regulations of the for-profit college and university industry: "They aimed at the bad actors and they wound up scoring a direct hit on schools that service low-income students ... That cannot be what the Obama Administration wants."

If 16 whistleblower lawsuits, a Department of Justice investigation, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) sting, an EEOC lawsuit, over a dozen investigations by state attorneys general, payouts of over a quarter-billion dollars to executives and raising tuition on poor students to dishonestly maintain access to federal funds does not constitute a "bad actor," then, in Graham's eyes, what does?

Kaplan University was once known as the cash cow of The Washington Post company. Now, it is little more than a legal albatross for its sugar daddy. Tragically, the Post Company's answer to Kaplan's declining domestic fortunes has been to export their educational product internationally. Kaplan International was one of the only divisions of the Washington Post Company to show growth in 2011, with a $100 million increase in revenues. This tells us that our struggle against Kaplan and the for-profit college industry is now international.

Danny Weil is a writer for Project Censored and Daily Censored. He received the Project Censored "Most Censored" News Stories of 2009-10 award for his article: "Neoliberalism, Charter Schools and the Chicago Model / Obama and Duncan's Education Policy: Like Bush's, Only Worse," published by Counterpunch, August 24, 2009. Dr. Weil has published more than seven books on education in the past 20 years. You can also read much more about the for-profit, predatory colleges in his writings found at Counterpunch.com, Dailycensored.com, dissidentvoice.com and Project Censored.com where he has covered the issue of the privatization of education for years. He can be reached at [email protected] His new book, an encyclopedia on charter schools, entitled: "Charter School Movement: History, Politics, Policies, Economics and Effectiveness," 641 pages, was published in August of 2009 by Grey House Publishing, New York, and provides a scathing look at the privatization of education through charter schools.

The Washington Post Company reported the following accreditation matters in the 2011 annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

1) On January 26, 2012, Kaplan University received a notice from the Florida Board of Nursing regarding the Associate's degree in nursing program at the Pembroke Pines facility. The letter required Kaplan University to appear at a hearing on February 1, 2012, to discuss the performance of program graduates on the national nursing certifying exam (NCLEX), which has fallen below the required standard. As a result of the hearing, the program was placed on probationary status until the exam pass-rate improves. Under the Florida Board of Nursing Rules, a failure to achieve the required NCLEX passage standard in either of the next two calendar years could result in the program losing its license to operate in Florida.

2) On December 21, 2011, Kaplan College's North Hollywood, CA campus received notification that the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT) withdrew the college's accreditation for its radiologic technologist program. This program had 163 students on December 31, 2011. Kaplan College has appealed this decision and accreditation for the school will be maintained during the pendency of the appeal. Loss of JRCERT accreditation for this program may have a material impact on Kaplan College's North Hollywood campus and would certainly affect Kaplan's bottom line.

Kaplan was only one of five radiology programs nationwide to ever have their certification involuntarily withdrawn in 2011. Yet despite being unable to meet basic accreditation standards, Kaplan has been charging $42,000 for their two-year radiology certificate, while nearby Los Angeles City College charges $2,000 for a two-year radiology associate's degree.

3) In November 2011, an internal investigation determined that certain students in the Dental Assistant program at Kaplan College's Charlotte, NC, campus had not received clear guidance regarding the program's accreditation and the employment prospects for graduates of the program. Because the Dental Assistant program is not programmatically accredited, students graduating from the program are considered by the regulatory agency in North Carolina to have "Dental Assistant I" status instead of a more advanced "Dental Assistant II" status. All students in the Charlotte Dental Assistant program were given full tuition refunds, and current students and graduates were offered stipends in exchange for signing settlement agreements. As of December 31, 2011, the vast majority of the affected students have signed settlement agreements. [These Kaplan-generated agreements have nondisclosure clauses that prevent the public from seeing the violations by Kaplan and the terms of the settlement agreement. We do know that the cost of settlement was $5 million.] The school ceased enrollment in the program and withdrew its license to operate the program in North Carolina. No other programs at this campus were affected .

4) In August 2011, Kaplan College's Modesto, CA, campus was ordered by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) to 'show cause' why continued accreditation of its Medical Assisting program should not be denied due to low placement rates. Kaplan College Modesto responded, and ABHES agreed to continue the current grant of accreditation through December 31, 2012, to allow the campus additional time to continue to show compliance with ABHES standards. Loss of ABHES accreditation for this program would have a material impact on the Modesto campus and Kaplan's bottom line.

Medical assisting program problems are not limited to Kaplan's Modesto campus. On December 18, 2011, Kaplan student Michelle Flanagan, from Chicago, posted the following message on Kaplan University's Facebook page:

5) On or about January 17, 2008, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania contacted KHE's CHI-Broomall campus and made inquiries about the Surgical Technology program, including the program's eligibility for Title IV U.S. Federal financial aid, the program's student loan defaults, licensing and accreditation. Kaplan responded to the information requests and fully cooperated with the inquiry. The DOE also conducted a Program Review at the CHI-Broomall campus, and Kaplan likewise cooperated with the Program Review. On July 22, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced that it had entered into a comprehensive settlement agreement with Kaplan that resolved the U.S. Attorney's inquiry, provided for the conclusion of the DoJ's program review and also settled a previously sealed U.S. Federal False Claims Act (False Claims Act) complaint (31 U.S.C. § 3729, et seq.) that had been filed by a former employee of the CHI-Broomall campus. [Once again, it must be noted that the terms of the settlement did not disclose Kaplan's abuses or the agreement's terms.]

In the CHI matter, Kaplan had been enrolling students in the surgical technology program knowing that there were not enough clinical externships available for students to complete the program and graduate. It took the Washington Post Company four years to agree to a $1.6 million settlement to pay back the affected students' loans, and the money the company paid back was money it received from the federal government to provide students with college educations. In essence, Kaplan pays the cost of settlement out of Title IV funds and student loans. In 2011, Kaplan renamed the CHI school in an attempt to erase the stain from this case.

Legal Proceedings

In addition to the aforementioned accreditation problems, the 2011 annual report disclosed that Kaplan has been subject to the following legal proceedings: two class-action lawsuits, five false-claims whistleblower lawsuits, an employment discrimination lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a Senate inquiry, and subpoenas and investigative demands from the attorneys general of Illinois, Massachusetts, Delaware and Florida.

None of the accreditation problems or legal proceedings facing Kaplan has been reported in The Washington Post. Apparently, The Washington Post Company has been too busy engaging in misconduct to report on it. This seems to be further evidence of how The Washington Post has sold its integrity in exchange for quarterly profits which have now evaporated, leaving the Post left with little more than a soiled reputation and shuttered news rooms.

Conclusion

The Washington Post Company's diversified portfolio of legal problems detailed in their 2011 annual report is astonishing, and should force the public to sit up and take notice. Furthermore, by failing to report on the extensive legal troubles at Kaplan, The Washington Post has also ceased being a real newspaper, preferring to conceal more than it reveals.

In 2010, Washington Post Company Chairman Donald Graham told The Wall Street Journal, which was reporting on proposed regulations of the for-profit college and university industry: "They aimed at the bad actors and they wound up scoring a direct hit on schools that service low-income students ... That cannot be what the Obama Administration wants."

If 16 whistleblower lawsuits, a Department of Justice investigation, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) sting, an EEOC lawsuit, over a dozen investigations by state attorneys general, payouts of over a quarter-billion dollars to executives and raising tuition on poor students to dishonestly maintain access to federal funds does not constitute a "bad actor," then, in Graham's eyes, what does?

Kaplan University was once known as the cash cow of The Washington Post company. Now, it is little more than a legal albatross for its sugar daddy. Tragically, the Post Company's answer to Kaplan's declining domestic fortunes has been to export their educational product internationally. Kaplan International was one of the only divisions of the Washington Post Company to show growth in 2011, with a $100 million increase in revenues. This tells us that our struggle against Kaplan and the for-profit college industry is now international.

Danny Weil is a writer for Project Censored and Daily Censored. He received the Project Censored "Most Censored" News Stories of 2009-10 award for his article: "Neoliberalism, Charter Schools and the Chicago Model / Obama and Duncan's Education Policy: Like Bush's, Only Worse," published by Counterpunch, August 24, 2009. Dr. Weil has published more than seven books on education in the past 20 years. You can also read much more about the for-profit, predatory colleges in his writings found at Counterpunch.com, Dailycensored.com, dissidentvoice.com and Project Censored.com where he has covered the issue of the privatization of education for years. He can be reached at [email protected] His new book, an encyclopedia on charter schools, entitled: "Charter School Movement: History, Politics, Policies, Economics and Effectiveness," 641 pages, was published in August of 2009 by Grey House Publishing, New York, and provides a scathing look at the privatization of education through charter schools.